Orphan Black Season 2, Episode 5 Recap: Sarah and Her Seestras

Orphan Black blew us away last year (you may have seen our Season 1 recaps during the hiatus?) with its riveting performances (led by Tatiana Maslany), brilliant storytelling, and intriguing romances (like Sarah/Paul and Cosima/Delphine). Now it's back for Season 2, and so are our weekly episode recaps. Buckle up—we have a feeling it's going to be quite the ride.

This post contains SPOILERS for all aired episodes of Orphan Black, including last night’s Season 2, episode 5, “Ipsa Scientia Potestas.” Enjoy!

Doctor Leekie supervises the apartment clean up and sighs over the carnage. The PROJECT LEDA photo is in his hand and Sarah is too smart to leave that behind accidentally. Rachel arrives, Paul in tow. Despite Leekie’s objections, Rachel demands to see Daniel’s body. She slowly approaches the body. She’s incredibly upset – well, for Rachel, that is, but when she looks at Daniels body, her jaw clenches. Leekie and Paul flank her on either side at her back. She stops at Daniel’s feet and waits and blinks and then waits a moment more. Finally, when neither man anticipates her need, she rolls her eyes. “I’d like to see him please.” Honestly, the eye-roll ‘bout killed me. So much aggrieved annoyance there. Men. Paul does her bidding and whips the plastic back. Rachel crouches by Daniel’s body. With halting movements, she lays her fingers over his eyes. Leekie offers his sympathies, adding that Daniel was a very loyal man. “To you,” Rachel notes bloodlessly. Unable to help himself, Paul asserts this wasn’t done by Sarah. “No,” Rachel allows as she rises to stroll into the bathroom. “I believe we all recognize the handiwork.” As she moves, Helena’s clone-stick-figures-drawn-in-the-blood-of-her-victims calling card is revealed to be on the wall. This time, it depicts two clones, Sarah and Helena, with Kira swinging from their hands in between them. What was Sarah doing while Helena finger painted the walls?

“Your white whale, Aldous,” Rachel calls as she examines what was left behind in her bathroom. Leekie notes that there’s a pair of them now as security shows Helena and Sarah leaving together, which he finds fascinating, “if one can rise above it, Rachel.” In the bathroom, Rachel runs her fingers over Daniel’s gun, now in a plastic bag, and then lifts the bag that holds Helena’s knife. “Animals,” she hisses. So I guess she’s not much for rising above. “How was Taiwan, Paul? You two get along?” Leekie asks heavy with innuendo as he jerks his head toward Rachel. “He performed adequately,” Rachel calls. “I did my job,” Paul says flatly. “Personal security, was it?” Leekie replies. “That’s right,” Paul answers. Rachel has reached the bedroom where she notices the video machine is on and goes over to eject the CAMBRIDGE tape. Leekie points out that Helena could’ve killed Rachel too. “Thank you for your concern,” Rachel snarks back but there is true emotion choking her throat. She puts the tape away as Leekie reminds her there is a kinder, gentler way. “This is all a result of your heavy-handed tactics.” She shuts the drawer with a snap. “Trust me, Aldous. I’ve only just begun.” She re-enters the living room just as a cleaner zips up Daniel’s body bag. You can practically see her thinking “oh, it is SO on!” or possibly, “tea, Earl Grey, hot.”

Credits.

Over at Fee’s Fun Flat, Helena lays on Fee’s couch in her still bloody wedding dress while Fee tries to process. “You realize I’m gonna have to paint this to come to terms with it?” Sarah begs him not to. “You’re right,” he agrees. “I mean, you shot your evil twin sister dead only to have her arise and gut Rachel’s henchman. How could I capture the nuance?” Heh. Sarah agrees he couldn’t. No, really. “You’re now pitted between two psychopaths,” he says quietly. “Cut her loose.” Sarah can’t because she knows if Helena hadn’t shown up, Daniel would’ve killed her. Fee is adamant that Helena cannot stay at FFF and Sarah asks him just to get her seestra something to wear. Fee bitterly agrees. “I’m sure I’ve got a Ukrainian folk costume in here somewhere.” HA! Helena hisses at him as he passes, which scares him into prancing out of the room. Sarah gets in Helena’s face, who’s giggling, and orders her to treat Felix with respect. “That’s my brother, which means he’s one of our sisters. Family. You get it, Meathead?” Helena cranes her neck around to frown at Sarah. “Do not call me this.” Sarah takes a breath and more calmly asks if Helena understands what she’s saying. “He is seestra?” Helena clarifies as Felix returns. “Oh God,” he moans. “Exactly,” Sarah agrees. Fee tosses some clothes at Helena while Sarah orders her to go wash up, “and do everything he tells you too.” Helena smells the clothes Felix gave her and gives him a very Alison, raised-eyebrow look as she trots past him. “Thank you, Felix.” “Just don’t kill my rubber ducky,” he calls after her then to Sarah, “Jesus, what did those fish-cult freaks do to her?” Sarah doesn’t know but she does know someone who can handle Helena and may be able to get something out of her if Felix can, in the meantime, chaperone seestra while Sarah gets her shit together. Isn’t this entire series about Sarah getting her shit together? “You are truly unbelievable,” he replies. Sarah merely waits; she knows he’ll never let her down. “Take this,” he says as he hands over his laptop. “Go and talk to your daughter.” Sarah thanks him and kisses his hand.

Out in the wild, Cal has parked the camper by a lake. Kira has just woken up and complains that her socks are wet. With a toothbrush sticking out from his mouth, Cal checks the socks and agrees they are indeed wet. He offers his socks as alternative but even though they’d be knee-highs on her. Charmed, Kira giggles at him but declines. “You know what? You’re gonna need more than big socks this morning,” he agrees. He goes over to a panel in the kitchen as he tells her he knows it’s all been confusing for her, “I don’t blame you for being put out.” In the panel is a stack of fake IDs, a wad of cash, from which he draws a few bills, and a 9 MM pistol. See? Toldja he was squirrely. “But,” he continues, “since we’re stuck in it together, there’s no reason we shouldn’t have a little fun. And there’s no reason why we shouldn’t have really awesome socks! Right?” Grinning, Kira nods in agreement.

Back in Rachel’s condo, Paul pours her a glass of designer water. She orders him to sit. “I’m in need of a new monitor.” Paul shock shows on his face. “You have a monitor?” Leekie fills in that she did have a monitor. Daniel was not only her henchman but, as Sarah accused Daniel before he started cutting on her, he was also Rachel’s monitor. With his death, she’s in need of a new one and is offering the position to Paul. “I’ve been self-aware since I was a child. I’m not exempt from the program. I simply enjoy a unique vantage, one with privilege.” Leekie fills in that Rachel needs full time security in addition to which Paul will provide data to Leekie on Rachel’s health and well-being like any other subject. Rachel blinks several times as she listens to him discuss her like she’s a lab rat. Despite maintaining her composure, it feels as though she’s on the edge of killing everyone in the room. “Are you asking me if I’m interested or reminding me I have no choice?” Paul snaps. Rachel frames it as a handsome promotion, “if you have the starch for it.” Paul gives her epic hate stare.

Rachel asks Leekie where he’s at with the new stem-cell line. He claims his newest in vitro tests have proven promising enough to treat Cosima. She orders him to shut down the tests. “Until Sarah comes to heel, Cosima will suffer.”

In her sweet crib lab, Cosima is on the phone with Scott, her lab partner toy back at the university. Out of range of the vid phone, Delphine pours over some paperwork. Scott apparently blogs about genetic patents in his spare time and give Cosima the lowdown on how back in the early 80s, genetics was the wild west because no one knew the science and the laws didn’t exist so everyone slapped provisional patents on everything just in case. “Like pissing on a fence post,” Cosima scoffs. Scott calls it leaving it in legal limbo until the laws change or they figure out it’s worth anything, but the metaphor is apt all the same. Cosima realizes they’d still have to register the patents somehow and somewhere and Scott concludes something like synthetic DNA would have to be lodged with the military. “The Dyad was just a contractor. It could be a secret military patent.” This tracks for Cosima and she wonders how she’d find out for sure. “I guess wait for a guy in aviators shows up and tells you you’re in violation?” Scott teases. He asks why he can’t come work for Cosima on the super sensitive shit. “Delphine, why can’t Scott come work for us on the super sensitive shit?” Cosima asks cheekily as Delphine joins her, still puzzling over the papers. “Because we’d have to kill his family,” Delphine replies without looking up. Scott’s cool with that. “I applied with a letter from the dean.” Delphine decides Cosima and Scott are done and disconnects them. “He’s so cute,” Cosima chimes but Delphine is too wrapped up with the paperwork. They’re tissue test results from a stem-cell line she’s never seen before and what’s more, they are compatible with Cosima. Delphine concludes they were accidentally sent to her at the Sweet Science Crib (SCC). “They were meant for Leekie.” Cosima reminds everyone Leekie agreed to share all the science with them. “Why don’t we have these cultures?” Delphine doesn’t know. She wonders if it’s because they’re experimental or proprietary but Cosima is game to try anything at this point. Delphine feels the same way.

At the lake, Kira sits at the picnic table using Cal’s laptop talking to Sarah. Seriously, what the hell kind of Wi-Fi does he have in that camper? Kira is now wearing a heavy jacket with a hat shaped like a leopard’s head and looks so freaking cute, my uterus just clenched. She asks where Sarah is. “I’m in a place where bands play,” Sarah answers, glancing around the bar. When Kira asks what bands, Sarah checks with the waitress, Bobby, who, in a lovely bit of continuity, is the same woman who served Fee and a newly-returned Sarah in the pilot episode. Sarah: “Who’s playing tonight?” Bobbie: “The Shit Goblins.” Awesome. Sarah grimaces and turns back to the vid screen, indicating the 8-year-old on the other end. From Kira’s perspective, Bobbie appears behind her mother’s shoulder. “Sorry,” she whispers. “Yeah,” replies Sarah. “Heh,” grunts the recapper. Sarah tells her monkey that she misses her. “I’m not a monkey anymore, I’m a leopard,” Kira informs her, tilting her head down to show off the hat. Sarah thinks that cool and compliments the jacket but with less enthusiasm. “You can talk to Daddy now,” Kira tells her and gets up to leave without saying goodbye. Sarah calls after her, “hey, monkey – monkey! Kira!” but Kira doesn’t stop. “’Daddy’,” Sarah sighs unhappily. Cal takes Kira place and immediately apologizes. “I keep tell her it’s ‘Cal’ but she ‘Daddyed’ me twice this morning.” Sarah doesn’t care (she totally cares) and says it’s fine for Kira to call him whatever she wants. Cal wonders if Sarah is sure she’s OK but she asks if he minds if they don’t get into. “A little,” he allows, checking Kira. Sarah gives in enough to tell him the guy he thought he killed by crashing the truck into Daniel’s car didn’t in fact die, “not by your hand.” Cal’s relieved to hear that, “ostensibly.” Sarah smiles slightly and asks where Cal and Kira are. “Close enough to grab you when you’re ready,” he assures her. “I look forward to that,” she replies sincerely.

Felix, meanwhile, has arrived with Helena at their destination. He rolls his bicycle down the hallway of a condo building. “Best behavior little…seestra,” he orders. Helena scuttles along behind him. Art opens the door to them. “Hello again, Detective Bell,” Helena says. She’s wearing Felix’s fur-trimmed bike helmet. Dying. Art hustles them inside. Immediately, he strips the jacket from Helena and hustles her against the kitchen island to pat her down. She tries to buck him off, “I don’t like to be touched!” but he doesn’t care and prevails. Fee protests that he just gave Helena new clothes, “she doesn’t have any weapons…” Art cuts him off by merely holding up the pen he found stashed in Helena’s boot. “That’s my pen!” Fee exclaims. “I wanted to write letter,” Helena quips innocently. Ha! Art reminds Helena that he hasn’t forgotten how she shot at him in season one. This makes her laugh. He turns her around and orders her to give him her hands. “Do as he says, meathead,” Fee says. Helena glares at him but allows Art to snap handcuffs on her. He tells her the windows offer a 30-foot drop to the street and that all sharp objects have been locked away. “The only way in and out of here is through me. In other words…” he roughly shoves her into a chair. “You’re safe here.” Fee reiterates how Art wants to help her and Sarah. “He lies down with pigs,” Helena says. She mocks Art by snorting like a pig. “And that’s my cue to leave,” Fee decides. He announces he too has a hot date. “Ah, good luck with…that.” At the door he stops to offer Art one last piece of advice. “Try food.”

At the Prolethean Ranch, down in the exam ward, Henrik reviews film and a file, presumably on Helena, while Bonnie primly tells him that so long as Gracie refuses to talk, she will remain punished until she admits the truth. Henrik wonders if she’s sure Gracie is lying but Bonnie is certain and she knows Henrik is too. “If she won’t open her heart to Helena then she’s clinging to the old ways. A punishment to fit the crime.” Henrik notes that it’s been 12 hours and Bonnie unbends enough to let him check on Gracie who has been locked in a cell stall in the barn. Inside, Gracie kneels facing the wall, praying. Henrik asks if she’s ready to tell them what really happened with Helena. Gracie’s head whips around. They sewed her mouth shut! This girl is their daughter, right? Gracie is right pissed and obviously has no intention of telling them jack all about anything no matter what parts they sew shut next. Hey, I would put nothing past these people at this point. “She can rot,” Bonnie says flatly. Oh, by the way? These people are fucking nuts.

In her now cleaned up apartment, I guess, Rachel reviews the videotape of her time as a child in Cambridge. On screen, her father teases her about being the tickle monster. Child Rachel giggles sweetly. Adult Rachel is unmoved. Child Rachel tells her parents she loves them as Paul enters the room behind Adult Rachel. Rachel tells him how Sarah’s trying to learn everything about her just as Rachel does the same with Sarah. She wants to make it clear to Paul that he reports her data to Aldous as her monitor, but he works for her. She explains that when her adoptive parents died, Leekie became a sort of guardian to her as she’s known him her entire life. But now, she holds a more prominent position in the corporation outranks his Dyad directorship. “He can become too attached to his subjects, myself included.” she warns. “Sometimes he can’t make the hard choices.” She asks if Paul read up on Cal and Paul gives her a rundown on how Cal made his money in microptics and may have anti-corporate leanings. He wonders what Rachel is looking for. “I need to know if he’s the other side of Kira’s biological equations,” she reveals. He admits the timeline works and they can place him with Sarah eight years ago. Rachel asks if it bothers Paul that Sarah is back with the father of her child. “No,” Paul says without emotion. “Up until now, your entanglements with Sarah have been your saving grace, Paul,” Rachel says. “I never asked her to cross my path,” Paul replies. “You didn’t ask for me, either,” Rachel points out. Sounds like someone has clone envy. She picks up Daniel’s plastic encased gun and tells Paul it’s time to make a decision. She explains how it can be tied to the murder of a police officer. “There’s no middle ground anymore.” Paul: “What do you need me to do?”

At Art’s apartment, Helena is fascinated by the fish in the aquarium. Get it? Fish cult? Fish in a bowl? Art wants her to pay attention to his case file on the clones, specifically Maggie Chen, a known Prolethean, who was Helena’s spotter for the other clones when she was executing them. “You two worked together. Thing is, last time I saw you, you were running away from Johansson’s followers in a wedding dress.” Helena flashes back to that shot from last week’s episode. “You want to tell me about that?” Art asks. More flashbacks to Helena running through the walls of plastic sheets. “What did they do to you?” Even more flashbacks to Mark readying the insemination tool or possibly extractor. Art keeps asking questions about Helena’s activity with Maggie Chen while Helena breathes on the side of the aquarium so she can draw pictures in the film. Art studies her a minute then tell her he’s a very patient man. “So, Imma just gonna make me a grilled cheese sandwich while you think about it.” Helena pings on that immediately, just as Art planned.

Back at the Prolethean Ranch, Mark brings Gracie milk in a jar and feeds it to her through a straw that fits between the stitches holding her mouth closed. He apologizes for not being able to help her out of the sitch and tells her Henrik is sending him after Helena. “She’s gotta carry the child, right?” So that explains that part of their plan at least. “I don’t know if she’s a miracle or not, but if something happened, just confess.” Gracie raises her eyes at that, all friendliness gone. “Confession heals all,” Mark exhorts. Gracie lowers the milk and deliberately turns her head from him. Mark carefully leans over to kiss her cheek by her mouth. Gracie softens slightly and Mark chuckles. “Doesn’t matter to me what you did,” he promises. She’s clearly—if silently—charmed.

Art opens a can of sardines for Helena who pours mustard on top of them. “When I was seven, the nuns said that I had devils inside me,” she tells him with amusement. “Sister Olga locked me in cellar. She gave me darkness. So,” she says as she puts a hard-boiled egg into her mouth, “I gave her darkness.” She moves her thumbs as though pushing something out and makes a popping sound. I’m guessing she popped out Sister Olga’s eyes. “Does Sarah know of Swan Man?” she asks. Art doesn’t think so. “Swan Man played God.” Art wants to know how he did that. “He’s in her locker,” Helena tells him. Art asks if she means Maggie Chen’s locker. “Why does Rachel want Sarah? Is it for Kira too?” Art is more concerned whether or not Maggie Chen has a locker. Helena jerks against the cuffs and asks how her being chained up helps her seestra. Knowing he’s finally on the edge of something important, Art can barely contain himself as she sits down across the table from her. “Helena, this is really important.” Helena decides she wants to tell him something. He twitches in his seat. “Yeah?” She taps the plastic box of white-powdered donuts that lies between them. “These I like.”

At Fee’s Fun Flat, Fee is ready to have some fun with his hot date. Tears for Fears blares out as he puts the red sheets on the bed and then we get an absolutely fabulous dressing montage of Fee prepping for his date, cleaning all signs of being a set piece for Sarah and Her Seestras from his flat, setting out the tequila, and changing his clothes several times in search of the perfect outfit. At one point, frustrated, he poses in front of the full-length mirror naked but for a pair of blue tightie-whities and you can practically hear him moan the Rom-Com staple I hate everything I own. Finally he pulls on a new pair of trousers up and Hel-Lo Little Felix! Jordan Gavaris brought the money shot tonight for sure! All dressed up and ready to…go, he answers the knock at the door and greet Colin, the cute mortuary tech from season one. “Colin, you’re back.” Colin corrects that it’s provisional only, and wonders if it’s safe to come in. Fee counters that it depends on what Colin’s scared of. “Hmm. I don’t know. Cops showing up at my desk full of innuendo about you.” Fee smiles and coyly tugs Colin closer. “All of that has blown over,” he reassures. They kiss and then hey! It’s another montage! They dance and make out and laugh and strip one another. At one point, Colin pushes Fee over the back of the couch and then prances around to join him, pausing just before he knocks his head into the lamp and adorably making a point of ducking beneath it. He climbs on top of Fee on the couch and they start getting serious about it. Colin reaches over Fee’s head to grab a bottle of lube. He raises a brow at Fee who giggles as Colin scoots down his frame. Colin makes a big show of pouring the lube into his hand…just as someone new knocks on the door.

The cops don’t wait for an answer either before yanking the door open to present Fee with a warrant to search the place. Colin sits up reflexively raises his hands. “Oh shit. Not again.” The uniform helps him up as Fee hastens to reassure him it’s all a misunderstanding. The detective mocks “Morgy” that he better hope they don’t find anything incriminating in his friend’s place. “You won’t,” Fee sighs and then thinks to add, “Probably,” which makes Colin look back with alarm. “Sorry, baby?” Fee calls after him as he fastens up his trousers. “Shit.”

Downstairs, the obese man who runs the massage parlor next to Fee’s Fun Flat stands in the alley shirtless as Sarah rounds the corner to see a trifecta of squad cars camped out in front of the building. She turns her back just as Colin is led out, hands still raised, probably because they’re covered in lube, and ducks behind the corner.

Upstairs, Fee tells the detective he won’t find anything other than a few roaches, and I think he means both the kind you smoke and those who scurry. “And aren’t you supposed to show me some identification of something?” He fails to notice Paul’s arrival. “Hello Felix,” he says in the Batman voice. “Oh you bloody prick,” he swears. Fee jerks on his shirt as he continues. “Why can’t you just leave my sister alone?!” Fee shouts. Paul jerks his head at the waiting detective dismissing him. Fee smiles slyly at Paul. “Playing for Team Rachel now, yeah? Got the corrupt arm of the law in her clutch purse?” Paul doesn’t speak, but sits in the chair and pulls on black gloves. When he sees the gloves, Fee laughs with disbelief. He plops back onto the couch and jauntily crosses his legs. “So what’s this? You come to finish me off? Big Dick Paul?”

Paul turns the flat stare on Fee. “You were at Cal Morrison’s cabin,” he says. Fee denies knowing what he means. Paul grimaces and pulls out the plastic bag that holds Daniel’s gun. You can see now he’s only wearing one black glove. Fee starts to panic. He asks what Paul is going to do with the gun and when Paul moves toward him, Fee frantically tells him to put the gun down. They both get to their feet. “Put it down?” Fee asks. Paul sidles closer and closer toward Fee with the gun aimed at him. “Paul?” Fee tries again.

Suddenly, Paul grabs Fee’s arm and throws him face down across the end of the couch. Paul pins him there with a knee on his back and aims the gun at the back of Fee’s head. Fee freaks fully out. “Paul! What are you doing? Are you crazy?!” Paul studies Fee for a moment and then grabs for his right hand, forcing it open as Fee sobs and pleads. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! What are you doing?” Paul forces the gun into Fee’s now open hand and wraps his fingers around it so the gun takes a good impression of his prints. He climbs off Fee and replaces the gun in the plastic bag. Fee slowly sits up and tries to process what just happened and all the implications.

Outside, Sarah’s CloneMobile rings and she answers, thinking it’s Fee, but instead Paul greets her. She asks where Fee is and Paul holds the phone out so Felix can call out that he’s fine, “present company excepted.” Paul tells a shocked Sarah that he has a murder weapon with Fee’s prints on it and a detective waiting in the hall to find it. “Then they’ll find the gun was used to kill Officer Tom Bowman at your friend Cal’s place.” Sarah can’t believe what she’s hearing and who she’s hearing it from.”You bloody gutless bastard!” Paul tells her Felix will be charged with murder unless Rachel gets what she wants. “So your little trip to Taiwan really paid odd,” she sneers. “How many clone notches in your belt now, eh Paul? Three?” Paul sticks to the script. “She wants everything Sarah. You, Helena, Kira. No more games.” Sarah: “This was never a game, you stupid twat.” Paul again ignores her jibe to tell her she has until morning and then he hangs up.

Art cleans up after Helena as he tries to make sense of what Sarah is saying over the phone. She begs him to help her, “Rachel is ruthless!” He agrees to check in with some people at the station to see if this is real or if Rachel is bluffing. Don’t call Angie, Art. For your own sake. Sarah screams that they have a gun on Felix but Art assures her it’s not that easy to frame up someone. Sarah knows better. Art tells her not to do anything crazy, just to come to his place. She agrees. “What else am I gonna do? I’ve got nowhere else to go, do I?” Art grimaces at being her last resort but disconnects without further comment. Frowning, he notices the tab is missing from the top of the sardine can on the stove. Turning, he sees it protruding from the handcuffs that are now short one clone. Before he can register what this means, Helena is on him. She snatches the gun from his waist and takes him to the floor in a hold. “Easy. Easy,” he chants. “He’s going to hurt her,” Helena whispers.

At the Prolethean Ranch, Henrik carefully snips through the stitches in Gracie’s mouth. “Well Gracie?” Bonnie asks expectantly. Gracie takes a moment to breathe through her newly freed lips. Addressing her father, Gracie says she was protecting “us, not taking a real life, like killing a coyote that wants to eat our chickens.” She apologizes to the father who allows that if she helps them reacquire Helena, all will be forgiven. “And, if you don’t,” Bonnie adds as she cups Gracie’s chin, “then you will carry the child yourself.” Holding Gracie’s chin firmly, she picks up a pair of tweezers and roughly plucks the threads from Gracie’s lips.

At the Dyad Institute, Delphine leads the way into Leekie’s office to search for more information about his in vitro tests. Cosima wonders if it’s a good idea to do this but Delphine is unusually confident that if Leekie is withholding promising treatment from Cosima then they are within their rights to snoop. “He’s gonna ruin your career,” Cosima teases, “destroy your reputation as a budding lesbian.” Heh. Delphine has no sense of humor these days and instead directs Cosima to look in the refrigerators with the idea that Leekie must be culturing the samples in his office. “For a beaker marked ‘culture’?” Cosima quips and now Delphine gives her a small chuckle. But as Cosima turns back, she sees Leekie standing in the doorway to the office. “Shit,” she hisses. “Merde,” Delphine repeats when she sees the problem. Leekie enters the office and addresses Delphine as Doctor Cormier. Cosima is quick to jump in and take the blame claiming she wanted to see the original genome, but Delphine sharply corrects her. “Aldous, you held back a stem cell line from us.” He denies this almost casually. “Remember I told you I was developing a pluripotent stem-cell line from baby teeth?” They remember. He confesses that Rachel is holding up further testing. “Why the hell would she do that?” Cosima asks. “In a word? Sarah.” He holds up the PROJECT LEDA photo and asks if she’s ever seen it before. Cosima peers at the photo and flicks a glance at Leekie. She asks who the people in the picture are, neatly dodging the question. “Two forefathers of the original experiment,” he tells her.

He sits them down to tell them something “only a handful of people know” which turn out to be the story of how the lab Rachel’s parents worked in burned down 20 years ago. “Several scientists died. Reams of data lost and the original genome was destroyed.” Delphine realizes that all the secrecy around the original genome is because it doesn’t actually exist. “Yes,” Leekie confirms. “The project is essentially an orphan. We lost your prehistory, Cosima, and with it all record of several synthetic sequences embedded in your DNA.” Cosima wants to know to what sequences he refers. “Sequences that make you possible,” Leekie says with an expression of amazement. “That overcame the viability issues that have haunted us ever since.” Cosima dumbs it down for the rest of us that the Dyad Institutes has essentially lost the map and that “finding the sequence in the genome is like looking for hay in a hay stack.” This is why if Sarah has uncovered something, Leekie needs to know. Cosima claims she has no idea what Sarah has or hasn’t found. Leekie doesn’t believe her, but he’s willing to buck Rachel’s order and give Cosima the treatment anyway as a gesture of good faith.

In the Camper by the Lake, Cal makes burnt spaghetti in a can for Kira. Kira’s drawing a picture while she waits of Sarah and Her Seestras. She’s drawn Alison, Helena, and Cosima holding hands. Cal admits he didn’t think Sarah had any sisters. “They’re new,” Kira says, “They all look the same but I can tell them apart.” Cal wants to know what she means. “Someone’s coming,” Kira says instead without looking up from coloring in Auntie’s Cosima’s legs. Cal here’s the car arriving and looks up in the next second. Someone knocks on the door; it’s the police. Cal greets them. The cop is “just checking” since it’s late in the season for campers. Cal says he’s just camping with his daughter, but the cop wants the license and registration anyway. Cal helpfully gets both from the cab and says when asked that he’s from Seattle. The cop makes the small talk that cops make when they’re trying to catch you out in your story as he checks out the Washington State driver’s license for Andrew Cooper that features Cal’s face. Cal starts to have a few too many “yups” as answers and the cop asks to check out the inside of the camper. Which is when Kira hops into sight wearing a gas mask and shouts “Trick or Treat?!” Cal laughs that Halloween is over. Kira knows this but teases that he’s burning dinner again. Cal tells the cop Kira was some videogame character for Halloween to explain away the gas mask. But the cop has seen enough genuine affection between Cal and Kira to be satisfied and leaves them to have their supper. “You’re quick on your feet, aren’t ya?” Cal says to Kira as he closes the door. She’s back coloring in her auntie’s legs and merely grins up at him in answer.

Sarah arrives at Art’s apartment to find Helena’s handcuffed him to the post in the kitchen and escaped. He has her get the keys where Helena left them on the fish tank. Heeee. Helena’s also left another of her Fortune Teller Puzzles. “Aw, not this again,” Sarah moans. “Yeah, more riddles from your sister,” he replies. She asks Art how it works. “Last time, it was GPS coordinates,” he says as he holsters his gun. “Three places we’d been; one we hadn’t.” They head out. I wonder how often Art forgets she’s not Beth, or just automatically treats her as Beth, as his partner, without even thinking about it or how he’s really only know this woman a matter of days, maybe a week or two by now.

Across town, Helena opens a garage to reveal her motorcycle stashed along with a whole bag of fun tricks. Later, Art and Sarah arrive at the same place, which turns out to correspond to the coordinates on the fortune teller. “Helena?” Sarah calls. “Don’t jump out and scare us with an ax or some shit.” Art sees the track that Helena’s bike left behind. Sarah wonders why Helena sent them there. They move into the back of the garage and Art realizes they’ve found Maggie Chen’s locker that must have been used as a drop to send information to Helena. Sarah realizes Helena must’ve been sleeping there, “what a sad life.” She finds cubbyholes filled with dolls’ heads and limbs and then a stack of old photographs. She moves on to find religious pictures of the Virgin Mary and then one of a nun with her eyes scratched out. Art finds a photo of a man in a hooded jacket in front of what look like church doors. On the back is written “Swan Man” which Art reads aloud. “Helena said that might mean something to you,” he says. Sarah, meanwhile, found another picture of the doctors Duncan. Absently, she tells Art about Leda and the Swan, “Project Leda.” Art tells Sarah how Helena said the Swan Man was playing God. Sarah holds the picture of the doctors Duncan up beside the one Art found, which they determine was taken in the mid-70s. She realizes the Swan Man is Rachel’s father, Ethan Duncan, one of the clones’ original creators, and that he could still be alive. “He didn’t die in the lab explosion.” She immediately wants to call Cosima, but first needs to find something she can use to trade with Rachel for Felix. Instead, Art has found a long sniper rifle case and it’s empty. Sarah raises her flashlight to the table top where a Barbie doll in a sheath dress has been decapitated and put on display. “She’s going to kill Rachel.”

Over at Rachel’s apartment, Rachel stands in the bathroom wearing a silk negligee and robe. She calls out for Paul who’s standing by the windows in the living room. “’63 Margaux,” she orders. “Two glasses.”

Across the way in an abandoned office building, Helena gives the decapitated Barbie head a haircut and, calling it Rachel, she talks to it. “So pretty. So much money.” She picks up the binoculars and spies on Rachel as she applies lipstick. Whistling, Helena puts lipstick on the doll. Rachel pauses in front of yet another mirror to examine herself. Please, she preens and then switches off the light. Helena puts the lipstick on herself. Rachel clinks glasses with Paul but orders him to put his down before he even takes a sip and then tells him to take off his shirt. Art and Sarah pursue Helena to Rachel’s place. “I’ll tell you, she’s fast,” Art admits. Helena smooches the doll’s head. Rachel circles the half naked Paul, wine in hand. He tries to turn toward her. “Don’t move,” she hisses. She grabs the back waistband of his trousers. “Take off your pants.” The camera pans down Paul’s ripped torso as, still without saying a word, Paul unfastens his pants with sharp, jerking movements. Helena watches all this through the binoculars and then removes them from around her neck.

Naked but for his boxer briefs, Paul stands still as Rachel steps in front of him and removes her robe. She grabs his chin and tilts his head to sniff up his neck. Slowly she shoves her fingers into his mouth, forcing it to open wide. She repeats the motion with her own mouth, an awkward yawn, which makes her look more like Helena than ever before, and then puts their mouths together for what technically passes for a kiss. Rachel traces her hands down Paul’s body. When she breaks the kiss, he takes the initiative to pull her closer and, without hesitation, she slaps him across the face.

Across the way, Helena puts the rifle together and takes aim. In the apartment, Paul returns to his stoic, silent pose. “Daniel like that?” he asks though he sounds like he couldn’t care less. “Did Sarah?” Rachel returns, and she obviously cares quite a lot. Downstairs, Sarah spies Helena bike in the middle of the street. She and Art look up toward the vantage point. Art realizes Rachel’s suite faces the building Helena is in with a clear line of sight for a sniper. They hurry into the building. In the suite, Rachel orders Paul to get the chair. As he does, she displays agitation but whether it’s from arousal or renewed anger at Sarah because of Paul is unclear. Paul brings the chair over and stands beside it. Rachel exhales as her hand strokes over her breast. Across the way, Helena puts the rifle together. In the suite, Rachel’s hand lingers near her groin. She pulls out the waistband of Paul’s boxer-briefs and checks his readiness. “Take those off,” she snarls, snapping the band back against his skin. Still with no outward expression, he does so as Rachel circles him. Across the way, Helena ties the doll’s head on the top of the rifle. In the suite, Rachel’s presses up against Paul’s bare back and orders him to sit on the chair but not before she bites the developed muscle in the back of his neck. Dylan Bruce could pose for Michelangelo, I swear.

Through the rifle scope, Helena watches Rachel shove Naked Paul onto the chair. Rachel breathes hard and audibly and bears her teeth at Paul. “Do you like my hair, Paul?” Helena asks. “Ahhh, very pretty dirty, sexy Rachel,” she answers herself as she watches Rachel straddle Paul’s lap. “Like my mother.” In the suite, Paul pushes Rachel’s negligee up slightly as Rachel positions him and slides down. It’s probably the most wooden (heh) sex scene I’ve ever seen, almost as clinical as what Henrik and Mark did to Helena. The fact that Paul has now “slept” with three of the clone sisters gets even weirder when you realizes they’re all actually Tatiana Maslany in different wigs. Though I think what’s happening with Rachel could technically be called rape since, despite the working appendage, Paul is definitely unwilling in spirit if not in body and has already pointed out this episode how he does not have a choice when it comes to denying Rachel what she wants.

Sarah and Art locate Helena who greets them without turning around. They both order Helena to stop what’s she’s doing. “Mind your weapon, Art, or I pull trigger,” she warns. Through the scope, she watches Rachel enthusiastically ride Paul. The scenes switches back into the suite where Rachel grunts and thrusts loudly. Helena invites Sarah to come see the show. Sarah tells her she can’t shoot Rachel. “Rachel is problem,” Helena says simply. “I fix problem.” Sarah wishes she could but then tells her how Rachel has Felix. “Brother Seestra,” Helena remembers. “He’s in jail,” Sarah says. “If you kill Rachel, they’re gonna keep him there.” Helena nudges the binoculars toward Sarah with her foot and invites her to look into Rachel’s suite. Sarah does so and sees Rachel bracing herself against Paul’s chest as she rides him as Paul reaches out and grabs Rachel by the neck, each holding the other away so they’re intercourse is as impersonal as they can get. “Paul is unfaithful,” Helena says to Sarah. “I don’t care about Paul,” Sarah replies a little tearfully, or so says my closed captions. “He doesn’t matter anymore,” she tells Helena. There’s a great shot of Rachel and Paul through the rifle scope with the makeuped doll’s head perched above it. Without looking away from the scope, Helena sends them a smooch. Heh. “Then I kill him for you,” she tells her seestra. Sensing she means it, Art orders her to take her finger off the trigger. Sarah tries to tell them both to stop it. “Pull Art,” Helena taunts, “see who’s faster.” Sarah begs Art to stop but he can’t let Helena shoot.

Sarah slowly eases in front of the Helena’s rifle. She tells her seestra that there’s another way. “We can make a deal for Felix, but I need your help! Only you can find the Swan Man!” Helena murmurs that Sarah only wants to use her. Sarah spreads her arms and there’s a few beats where she and Helena are framed in the shot, Helena aiming the gun at Sarah who simply stands in front of the rifle blocking the shot. “No,” she says tearfully. “That’s not true. You saved my life. You’re my sister.” She starts to sob as she tells Helena how she thought she’d killed her. “I couldn’t tell anybody what I’d lost. You came back. Please put down the gun.” Helena studies her for a moment and then finally lowers the rifle. Sarah helps her down from her sniper perch and softly thanks her. They link hands together. “You make me cry, seestra,” Helena says. Sarah chuckles and hums in moist agreement. “Come on, Meathead,” she says fondly. She puts her arm around Helena neck and leads her from the room. “Do not call me this,” Helena automatically objects. Sarah chuckles. Art, hilariously wears the most what the fuck just happened?! look on his face as the seestras stroll past him. As they walk away, Helena lays her head on Sarah’s shoulder. Awwww. It’s weird ‘cause it works, or it’s weird but it works, I’m not sure which.

Back in the SSC, there are lots of long, loving touches between Delphine and Cosima as Leekie prepares Cos’s injection. Look, it’s basically a booster shot, ladies, but OK. Whatever. I get that Cosima is worried about what she’s about to get shot into her body and whether it will cure the fatal clone plague. At one point, Delphine strokes Cosima’s face and I swear she’s wearing the same ring Rachel wears. It’s also a visual contrast to Rachel and Paul’s clinical clone/monitor union with the soft focus of Delphine and Cosima’s version. There’s even piano music on their score and nary a sniper in sight! Leekie injects Cosima and we see that Delphine is sitting next to her holding her free arm. Leekie explains that it’s just an intradermal shot to see how her body responds. “Guess if my arm falls off, then we’ll know,” she jokes. “Or if you grow another limb,” Delphine adds as they both laugh. Sober again, Cosima tells Leekie that in light of what he shared with them, they have a proposition for him. “We do?” Delphine questions. “Oh, not us,” Cosima clarifies gesturing to include her and Delphine. “Us,” she emphasizes, meaning her clone sisters. Leekie is all ears. “Do you like to drink beer?” Cosima asks.

Back in the bar, Bobbie serves Leekie a glass of wine. Sarah joins him at the bar and Leekie is relieved and shocked to see her. “So I hear I’m not the only data you lost,” she says. He prompts that she has something for him and Sarah shares the photo of Doctor Ethan Duncan she found in Helena’s garage and that he’s alive. He wants to know where Duncan is, but Sarah demands instead that it’s vital Fee go free, all charges dropped. “Find him and I can pull the levers to countermand Rachel and guarantee Cosima will be able to continue treatments,” he promises. It’s Sarah’s turn to be shocked because Cosima still hasn’t told her she’s sick. Leekie is very interested to learn that the clone sisters don’t actually share everything. Sarah quickly catches on that Cosima has the same clone plague that killed Katja. Leekie decides to let Cosima explain it to Sarah but agrees it’s all the more reason to locate Duncan. He can buy them three days. “If anyone follows us, I’m gonna sic Helena on the whole lot of you,” she threatens. Leekie acknowledges that’s not an idle threat either. “No, it’s not,” she snaps before she leaves.

Sarah’s not gone five seconds before Paul joins Leekie at the bar. “Well, that looked interesting.” Leekie isn’t all that surprised to realize Rachel had Paul follow him. “She thought you might make a deal with Sarah behind her back.” Which is exactly what Leekie’s doing and Paul doesn’t seem all that upset about it although who can tell for sure about Paul these days. See, but this is why I’m sticking to my theory that Paul is playing a long con with Rachel and is still and forever Team Sarah because not for a moment does he veer from exactly what Rachel told him to do or say when giving Sarah the rundown after he’s assaulted Fee. He was like a robot then and again when he had sex with Rachel. But in season one, even when he was murderously mad at Sarah and stalked her to Alison’s pot luck with the intent to kill her and turned a nail gun on Vic the Dick, he was seething with emotion. I think he thinks or knows that Rachel’s always listening in or watching him or he’s taking no chances that he too is being monitored. Because this is not the man who told Sarah to run from Neolution or who leaned his head on her arm in Olivier’s office or who looked at her in Fee’s flat afterward as though she was his whole world and until he does something he can’t come back from, like kill Felix, (DON’T KILL FELIX, PAUL) I won’t be convinced otherwise. Besides, he’s second lead on the show and Michael Huisman’s only a guest star. What? Sometimes my ‘ship reasoning is practically based. Sue me.

Moving on. Leekie tells Paul that Sarah’s off on a trip down memory lane. “Then so am I,” Paul decides as he looks after Sarah. Leekie tells him what Sarah might find there could be dangerous to all of them. “So I need you to come to me first. Before Rachel.” Paul says he’ll be in touch and heads off in Sarah’s wake.

Outside, Sarah climbs into a truck (no idea where that came from) and asks Helena how they find Swan Man. Helena has removed her shoes and now has her sock-covered feet up on the dash. “This is nice truck,” she says. “Good legroom.” Sarah sighs and wearily asks again how where they’re going. “Cold River,” she replies. Sarah asks what that is, “a town?” Helena gazes off into the distance. “The place of screams,” she answers.

End credits.

Next week: To Hound Nature in Her Wanderings

Kiersten Hallie Krum writes smart, sharp & sexy romantic suspense. Find her snarking her way across social media as @kierstenkrum and on her web site and blog at www.kierstenkrum.com.

Thanks Kiersten - your recaps are AMAZING and you get them up so fast! You always point out things I missed and they've become required reading for me after I watch an episode. I really appreciate all the effort you put into them. :-)

Great recap Kiersten! This episode was all kinds of good. Sarah & Helena working together is crazy. Next week, seestras road trip!?! Say Whaaaaaaat?
I'll post further comments next week when I have more time.
I just love this show.

The closed captioning on this ep failed in a few places. Helena said, "Got you, Arthur" not "he's going to hurt her", which didn't even make sense. Another time I noticed a discrepancy...Helena said, "Mrs. S has nice truck. Much leg rooms."

I totally thought of your @Kiersten because I imagine recappers live by the CC but what do you do when that lets you down? lol

Also, people noticed that Helena was wearing the bike helmet backwards (the fur is supposed to be at the neck, not forehead).

I've considered the bloody art. She's very fast...so she might have scribbled it on her way out. Sarah should have taken the time to get her LEDA picture back from Daniel though.

There were lots of fun ties to Season 1 here. Bobby from the bar was one. Another was the fat half naked guy in a towel standing out in front of Fe's place and of course Colin.

I was thrilled we got to learn more about Helena and her back story and I was also glad tha we got a little balance here. Up to this point, it was always Helena trying to get close to Sarah and being rejected...but here, Helena is the one who has decided that Sarah's just like everyone else and is just using her in the end. It's all she knows, after all.

Even still, she wants to help her by taking care of her problems because they are literally each other's other half.

And this time, it's Sarah's turn. She's the one who has to open up and admit how she's felt. Her true sense of loss at having killed her twin, the anguish she felt and couldn't share with anyone...that she was lost and now she's back and...I felt was implied, "I don't want to lose you again so please put down the gun".

I also note the body language. The linked fingers...leaning in and touching foreheads. Sarah wrapping her arm around Helena and Helena reciprocating. Leaning their heads against each other as they walked away...even the fact that their pacing was totally identical. All of this communicated that they are finally together. It made my heart happy.

I was distressed about Kira. It felt to me that she is perhaps angry with her mummy for leaving her behind again. I do like her connecting with Cal but yes, you're right @Kiersten....there's something skeevy going on. How many fake id's did he have? Why? How did he have that camper ready on a moment's notice if not for his own getaway from his circumstances?

Paul....I agree with you on this. He's a robot right now. He is doing what he's told, nothing more. He did seem to enjoy pushing Sarah though, the grimace turning into a little evil smirk. So, who knows what's going on there.

As for Cosima and Delphine and Leekie...so much meat there in those conversations that it's tough to unravel. So the explosion took out everything in like 1994 ish? But what about the 10 years before that? The way they're acting, the girls are their only successful cloning experiment. Lots of questions.

I sort of called the Duncan being alive thing. The newspaper didn't say they died in the explosion, only that they were in charge of that experiment. Does that mean Mrs. Duncan also lives? If so, where are they?

You are my hero! My stupid OnDenamd (Comcast is the devil) conked out with five minutes left, and SO much happens in the last five minutes of this show. Again, your work is fantastic and thank you for your hard work for us fans.

Okay totally think Paul is shady. (Don't kill me guys lol) I'm not so sure about Delphine either. Ahhh! Can't trust anyone in this show except the clones and Fee. Who by the way better be free by next episode. I love me some some Fee! So sad Alison wasn't in this one. She's my fave. Cal seemed a little too interested in the "sisters". I mean we know he's a scientist. A pollinator I think? So the guy literally creates new life. Makes me think he had more to do with Kira then we know. Kira keeps getting more and more interesting each episode.

This was the one episode that didn't blow me away, I liked it but the Paul and Rachael stuff was too much for me. I didn’t find it hot but I think I will like the aftermath with Paul and Sarah. I like Sarah and Paul as they are right now, former lovers who still have a bond and will help each other out if they can. While Helena did provide some comic relief I am dying for next week with Allison and Vic the Dick. I did love the Fee and Paul scene, very emotional.

Rachael has such a deep hate and jealously for Sarah that I think started in childhood. My guess is that while she had happy parent's she wasn't "first choice" and mummy & daddy never got over the loss of their "first born". Rachael seems to be in some sort of self inflected competition with Sarah, a sort of envy and hate type thing. She want’s everything that Sarah has and everything that “makes her different”. I think that will come to a head once they find "daddy" aka Swan Man.

I also like the Leekie & Cosima relationship and the "we" talk. Sarah, Cosima, Allison and Helena are a we and Rachael is a they. If their is a board of directors or something Rachael could be in trouble if the other clones "unionize" so to speak and only are willing to work with Leekie.

haha! @Kiersten No prob. I'm sure he'd give me that stare for still thinking he's shady. I hope I'm so wrong about him and Delphine as well. If I am though I feel 100x worse about everything he's gone through with Rachel. It's just beyond weird, creepy, and gross.

@minime2 I agree. I think Leekie can be a huge asset if he's not playing the double agent game for Rachel. I honestly believe Rachel is the mastermind behind the clone experiments and Leekie is just a tool she uses. It seems she pretty much admitted as much this episode with her whole speech she gave to Paul about rank.

See, I think the disconnect is Rachel's, that she thinks because she now outranks Leekie in the organization she has the power. Meanwhile Leekie knows that to many in the organization, she will only ever be the clone and that the minute they need her to advance their agenda, she'll be treated just as badly as her Clone Sisters. He goes around and behind her when her mania against Sarah and the others works against the scientific agenda. Rachel's obsession, I think, is about who is the first clone, the original one. Sarah unique ability among them all (so far) to have a child singles her out and Rachel can't stand the idea that Sarah might be a better and thus more highly favored clone to Leekie and the others than she is despite being raised by the organization and doing their bidding. I wouldnt be surprised if it turned out she set the fire that supposedly killed her parents...

Very interesting point. Like you said we are still looking for the original. I don't think it's been established Sarah is absolutely not the original so to me it could be either Sarah or Rachel. If it's Rachel, that could explain her superiority, and also the anger she must have for being constantly outsmarted by a clone she's supposed to have control over. I think in season 1 it was said Helena and Sarah were the originals and were twins. I don't buy that. I also don't think Helena killed their real mother. So the question of who is the original is still up in the air.